Avid gamers among you who owned the original iPhone surely remember Eliss. Created by Steph Thirion and released in March 2009, Eliss was one of the first iPhone puzzlers that wouldn’t implement multitouch controls as an afterthought. It went on to win numerous awards and was called by many a multitouch masterpiece. Eliss challenged you to move around a bunch of planets and split/combine them with other planets of the same size/color.

On paper, the concept doesn’t sound terribly revolutionary or exciting. But once you picked it up, however, there was no putting Eliss down – it was that addictive. Unfortunately, the creator stopped updating the game just three months following its release: the last refresh was in June 2009.

Turns out other projects have kept Steph occupied – among them a brand new and polished remake of the original Eliss game…

Called Eliss Infinity, the game still features that memorable retro graphics akin to 8-bit games, cool ambient sounds with a great soundtrack and stylish execution.

And, it’s still as awesome and addictive as the original.

Use your fingers to control all the planets, fuse planets together until they become giant, or split them into halves until they become tiny, you’re in charge of this reactive universe. Just don’t let different colors touch!

Check out the promo video.

“It’s the Eliss I wish I could have released on day one,” the developer said, adding the game will “push your limits as a player”. Indeed, that’s the case.

Due to the color-matching requirement, differently-sized objects and obstacles such as suns, you’ll often find yourself using as many fingers as humanly possible just to get through the level.

Eliss Infinity includes a brand new endless gameplay mode and a collision detection system, along with all of the features and levels from the original game plus some much-welcomed tweaks like cloud saves, native iPad UI and more.

Here’s a list of key features:

Infinity, a new game, this time endless and score based. Line up bigger combos to increase your score and receive larger powerups. This is the most fun and replayable Eliss has ever been.

Odyssey, the original game with its 25 levels, polished and this time with an interactive tutorial, and an unlockable music arpeggiator.

Spacebox, a new mode where you can generate planets and play with them without losing. Train your skills, release your stress, or let the younger children play.

A new slick look, and new features like warnings of future collisions, for a more pleasurable experience. And for the nostalgic, the option to revert to the original look.

More music: two epic songs for Infinity, along with the four superb songs from Odyssey.

Universal support. For the first time, Eliss works natively on all iOS devices and screens. This game has never felt this great.

Sync. Your progress can be saved on your Game Center account, so you can continue playing from any device, and multiple users can make their own progress on the same device.

Leaderboards and challenges. Accept a challenge from a friend and track it from within the game.

All of this wrapped within an original, brand new big pixel interface, beautifully designed from scratch. This game feels as splendid as your iOS device.